Identify all of the possible keyword phrases that your tourism business could benefit from then follow a 5 phase keyword research and selection process to mine your Keyword Gold.
1. First identify core terms or keyword themes. These are unique two or three word combinations, not actual search phrases. For example “niagara wedding” might be the core term which will cover numerous phrases including “niagara falls wedding”. Go through your site, scanning title tags, keyword tags, description tags, text, navigation links, tour packages, etc. and identify all of the main site core terms which have already been established. Looking through packages and package descriptions will produce a gold mine of core terms. Look for unique two or three word phrases. During the course of your in-depth research finding actual searched phrases, some keywords will overlap across multiple core terms. Record them all.
2. Once you’ve worked through your site, do the same with a competitor’s website. Perhaps they have used a unique word combination you hadn’t thought of.
3. Make a list of keyword combinations that make sense as core terms or keyword themes from these five categories:
- relevant place names/tourism icons
- self identifiers for your ideal guests – how do they refer to themselves
- activities you offer or that your guests partake in nearby
- travel themes – wedding, fall colours
- type of accommodation, amenities and services you offer
4. Use tools to dig up even more core terms. Keyword Discovery, WordTracker, especially their new Keyword Researcher tool.
With the Wordtracker related keywords search tool, type anything and the results produced below are other phrases that may (or may not) be relevant. Pick through those results and document any new core terms found that are not already on your list. Google and Yahoo both have tools which will provide similar information allowing you to find such core terms, Also consider L3xicon.com .
Running a keyword search through L3xicon provides results showing related words, definitions and even related web pages.
Running a search for “niagara wedding” L3xicon produces some results that allow us to find some additional core terms that may not have already been added to our list:
- wedding chapel,
- wedding package,
- wedding planner,
- wedding ceremony,
- wedding service,
- wedding planner/planning
These may have already been discovered when pouring through the site and through competitor’s sites, but perhaps not. Next we’re going to try ‘outdoor wedding’, a phrase that probably came up in our WordTracker search. Here a few more relevant core terms pulled from the results:
- garden wedding,
- wedding location
Now let’s click on the ‘garden wedding’ link provided and see the results. Look! Another core term we can use:
- beach wedding
Let’s try going back and searching for ‘wedding location’. From this list of results we are able to pull:
- unique wedding,
- romantic wedding,
- exotic wedding,
- destination wedding,
Continue searching until you have finally found what you believe to be a complete list.
4b.. Ensure that you have not included core terms that are not relevant. For example without a beach, beach wedding is not relevant, remove it from your keyword optimization list.
5. After that you can begin the more in-depth research of finding all the related and actively searched phrases for each of these core terms, another time-consuming but rewarding task in the long-run. Determine which phrases are worth your time and energy and make changes to your site to take advantage of the new opportunities you have discovered.
Before rewriting your Web site for search engines, spend as much time as possible mining your keyword gold. You will design a Web site that is search engine optimized for search terms that matter. Your Tourism Business will be ready to mine a gold of a different kind.
good luck!
toddles
